Paul M Bauer

About

So why do I want to blog? I have to say right up front that for me it’s all about learning. I really enjoy learning new things, getting clarity on things I think I already know, and sharing and testing my knowledge. Technology continues to provide new tools to make learning easier and more effective, and neuroscience continues to contribute insights into what learning really consists of, at least at a physiological and psychological level. So we have new tools and new insights; learning just keeps getting more exciting, piquing my curiosity more and more.

And then there is the writing; I enjoy writing. Academic writing, as Steven Pinker stated in his recent book on style, is usually in the classic vein: the author is an authority on the subject matter and wants to share his knowledge with the reader. I plan to do some of that, but I resonate more with the essayists who say they write to clarify or even to learn what it is they are thinking.

And I am of the “all of us is smarter than any of us” school, so I want to elicit feedback, to get readers’ thoughts on the ideas we explore.

So my initial goals for this blog are twofold:

to entertain, inform, motivate and inspire readers to take responsibility for their own learning and experience the enjoyment I have found; and

to gather feedback to distill guidelines and identify tools to facilitate that personal learning.

I have always carried a notebook, paper DayTimer or later an electronic todo list; and I have always felt like a productivity drop out. I admire what David Allen has done with Getting Things Done–the flowchart is a very helpful visual–and I’ve always felt compelled to look not only at accomplishments but what they have meant to me. So I envision creating a tool I’ll call LML which stand for “lovin my life’, or for those who subscribe to the philosophy that life is about learning from the challenges and successes we face every day, LML is for “learnin more lessons”. So the customized tool would be about not only getting more done but also about creating and savoring enjoyment, meaning, and all those other positive emotions that uplift our lives. I’ll come back to LML in future posts.

Who am I? I was born the sixth of ten children, attended parochial school through college, then obtained an PhD in physics at a state university. I worked initially for the mother of all bureaucratic institutions–Ma Bell, albeit in the very innovative Bell Labs branch. I also managed technical teams in several startups, and spent the last fourteen years of my career sharing what I had learned about shaping technology to create value with students in the business school of a private university. Upon retirement, I was granted the title of Clinical Professor Emeritus of Business Information and Analytics. I originally viewed my current state as an encore, but now I think more in terms of starting over. I want to revisit, explore, challenge, solidify and share the learning I have been blessed with over the past 70 years.